Overview
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Read the articleAUTHOR
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Jean GARNERO: Chemical engineer - Former Research Director and Scientific Director of P. Robertet and Cie
INTRODUCTION
This article deals with the analytical characteristics of essential oils.
The most logical classification would have been by botanical family, following the order of the classic works:
cryptogams or flowerless plants, which include fungi (or thallophytes), bryophytes, algae, lichens, ferns (or vascular cryptogams);
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phanerogams or plants with flowers and seeds, which are divided into gymnosperms with naked ovules and angiosperms with ovules enclosed in an ovary.
Another classification could have taken into account the organ of the plant treated, i.e. flowers, leaves, aerial parts, trunk, bark, roots, rhizomes, fruits, seeds, exudates...
Our classification is the result of a compromise that takes into account the main constituent (linalool, linalyl acetate, citral, citronellal...) or the group of constituents of an essential oil (with phenols, monoterpenic compounds, sesquiterpenic compounds: hydrocarbons, alcohols, ketones). In some cases, we use the classification of botanical families: Hesperidae, Apiaceae. Sometimes it's the plant's exudate that's taken into consideration.
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Essential oils
Definition
References
Main works
Lesser essential oils
Some essential oils of lesser importance are dealt with briefly in the table 1 . For further details, please refer to the bibliographical references cited in this table.
The eighty oils mentioned here belong to the same groups as those studied in detail in article [K 345] and listed in the analytical table.
Standardization
The main standardization committees for essential oils are as follows.
France
— Commission de normalisation du Syndicat national des fabricants et importateurs d'huiles essentielles et produits aromatiques naturels de Grasse (standards: 2nd ed. 1959)
French Standards Association (AFNOR)
- Huiles essentielles. Règles générales concernant les caractéristiques des...
List of essential oil suppliers
Please refer to the bibliographic reference
1) Aripe Citrica Agro-Industrial S.A.
2) Adams Packing Association Inc....
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